World

Putin says Russia will study captured NATO military hardware

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russian specialists will analyse the NATO weapons captured during the war against Ukraine and use them to improve Russia's military systems.

"If there is an opportunity to look inside to see if thereis something there that can be applied in our country,well, why not?" Putin told Russian state television on Sunday.

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Iraqi premier makes rare visit to Syria amid Arab normalization

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday visited neighboring Syria, marking a growing Arab normalization with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The official visit was the first by an Iraqi premier to war-torn Syria in more than a decade. Al-Sudani met al-Assad, who said the visit would mark a “practical leap” in ties between the two countries. In mid-2014, the Islamic State extremist organization overran large swathes of northern Iraq.

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Kyiv reports 'intensified' combat as Putin says counteroffensive failing

KYIV — Ukraine on Sunday said fighting had "intensified" on the eastern front as Russian President Vladimir Putin deemed Kyiv's counteroffensive a failure.

Putin is yet to decide if Russia will renew the grain deal -- expiring late Monday -- that allowed the resumption of Ukrainian exports through the Black Sea, temporarily halted when the invasion began in February 2022.

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British actress and singer Jane Birkin dies

VILNIUS (Reuters) - British actress and singer Jane Birkin was found dead at her home in Paris, Le Parisien newspaper and BFM television reported on Sunday, citing people close to her. Birken, 76, was best known overseas for her 1969 hit in which she and lover, the late French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, sang the sexually explicit “Je t’aime...moi non plus”. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by David Goodman)

Netanyahu ejects party activist over Holocaust mockery at judicial protest

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the ejection on Sunday of an activist from his Likud party who mocked the Holocaust while heckling anti-government protesters, in remarks that suggested ethnic tensions beneath a constitutional crisis. Video circulated on social media showed Itzik Zarka cursing and spitting at demonstrators at a traffic junction near the working-class town of Beit Shean on Saturday. "It's not for nothing that six million were killed," he shouts. "I'm proud that six million of you were burned!" "We will not tolerate such dis...

High temperatures ease in Greece, but new heat wave coming

North winds finally set in on Sunday in Greece to alleviate the sweltering temperatures of recent days and push the mercury back below 40 degrees Celsius across most of the country. In the capital Athens, thermometers were expected to show 36 degrees around noon. On Saturday, a record-breaking 44.2 degrees was measured on the island of Crete. However, despite the slight respite, meteorologists are warning that a new heat wave is likely in the Mediterranean holiday country. From Wednesday on, "the temperature will go up again," a meteorologist said on state radio, forecasting a spike as high as...

Thousands evacuated as Spanish island wildfire out of control

(Reuters) - At least 4,000 people have been evacuated as a forest fire burned out of control on the Spanish island of La Palma, authorities said on Sunday, as Europe struggled to cope with a heatwave. The fire in La Palma started in the early hours of Saturday in El Pinar de Puntagorda, a wooded area in the north of the island in the Canaries. The blaze forced the evacuation of people from the villages of Puntagorda and neighbouring Tijarafe. Ten aerial units and 300 firefighters on the ground sought to bring the wildfire under control on the island, which forms part of a Spanish archipelago o...

Syrians who fled Assad fear he will soon choke off aid

By Maya Gebeily and Khalil Ashawi BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrians who fled President Bashar al-Assad's rule fear he may soon be able to choke off badly needed aid as Damascus acts to establish sway over U.N. assistance into the rebel-held northwest, the last major bastion of the Syrian opposition. A tussle at the U.N. Security Council over the aid operation has played to Assad's advantage, with his ally Russia vetoing an extension of its mandate this week and paving the way for Damascus to approve one itself - but on its terms. Aid workers said the outlook for one of the world's biggest humanitarian...

Record heatwaves sweep the world, from US to Europe and Asia

Rome (AFP) - Tens of millions of people were battling dangerously high temperatures around the world on Sunday as record heat forecasts hung over parts of the United States, Europe and Asia, in the latest example of the threat from global warming. A powerful heatwave stretching from California to Texas was expected to peak, according to the US National Weather Service, which warned of an "extremely hot and dangerous weekend". Daytime highs were forecast to range between 10 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in the west. Arizona's state capital Phoenix recorded 16 straight days above 109F (...

Death toll rises to 32 after severe weather in South Korea

The death toll from massive rainfall and flooding in South Korea has risen to 32 as of early Sunday. South Korean media reported that six bodies were recovered from a flooded tunnel in the central Korean city of Osong on Sunday morning. In addition, at least 10 people were still considered missing. Authorities believe that the number of victims could rise even further. The torrential rains have continued since the end of last week. They have triggered several landslides and temporary power cuts in several parts of the country. More than 7,000 residents had to be evacuated from their homes and ...

US, China aim to revive climate cooperation as tensions simmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States and China will look to revive efforts to combat global warming this week, in bilateral meetings that observers hope will raise the bar on ambitions ahead of UN-sponsored climate talks in late 2023.

The talks follow two other high-level U.S. visits to China this year, as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters work to stabilize a relationship strained by trade disputes, military tensions and accusations of spying.

Wildfire smoke triggers Michigan-wide air quality alert

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is expected to blow back into Michigan on Sunday, triggering a statewide air quality alert. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has issued an air quality action day for elevated levels of fine particulate or PM2.5 expected to be in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups range with some hourly concentrations reaching the Unhealthy range. In the southeast region, particulate matter is expected to impact Midland, Bay, Huron, Saginaw, Tuscola, Sanilac, Shiawassee, Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Livingston, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Wayne, Lenawe...

'What is wokeness?' Former defense secretary blasts far-right GOP on inclusion

The modern far-right GOP and its obsession with 'culture war' issues can be compared to trying to fight desegregation efforts, argued former Bill Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen on CNN Saturday.

Cohen, who has previously said that former president Donald Trump's disrespect for the security of classified information really amounts to a disrespect for the men and women behind that classified information who put their lives on the line for the country, was asked on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta about the "far-right Republicans" who argue that culture war add-ons recently passed in the House as part of a military budget "will help rid the military to what they describe as wokeness."

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